The robbers who came to their senses in a Saint’s Company

During one of His travels, Shrī Gondavalekar Mahārāj was passing through the forest of Abu (a place in Gujarat, India). It was late in the evening and He was travelling alone. Suddenly, He was confronted by some gangsters. Since He was alone at such an odd hour, they thought that He too, was a thief like them and took Him to their place for the night.

Maharaj went along without saying a word. Some of the robbers teased Him, beat Him up and verbally abused Him. But He did not react to any of it.

One of the older robbers was surprised at Maharaj’sbehaviour. He told the others, “This person must be having some supernatural powers (siddhis), due to which he does not seem to be affected by all the suffering we put him through. Let’s test him further to see if this is true.” The others agreed.

Soon they all sat down for supper. The older robber asked a younger robber to give Maharaj some milk. The young robber thought of teasing Maharaj and brought to Him a barren cow that never yielded any milk. He gave Maharaj a pot and asked Him to milk the cow and drink as much milk as He wanted.

Maharaj went to the cow and patting her with love, He said, “O Mother, I am hungry. Please give me some milk.” The cow responded by licking Maharaj and yielded willingly as Maharaj milked her. Much to everyone’s surprise, the ‘barren’ cow gave several pots full of milk!

Seeing this, the robbers were surprised and frightened at the same time. Fearing that they had abused a great Saint, they fell to Maharaj’s feet and pleaded for forgiveness. Maharaj forgave them and said, “Why do you hurt and rob others? Instead, try to chant the Name of the God and He will definitely give you whatever you want and much more than you can ever get through theft.”

Transformed by the great Saint’s company and blessings, the robbers gave up their bad ways and started sincerely on the spiritual path.

Moral: The satsang (company) of a Saint can transform even seasoned gangsters! How much then would one benefit by following Their teachings of chanting and regular spiritual practice!